Wegovy is a once-weekly injectable drug that’s used to assist regulate blood sugar ranges and support in weight reduction.
If you happen to’ve been prescribed Wegovy, this is likely to be the primary time you will have ever taken a self-administered shot.
However even if in case you have expertise with self-managed injections, Wegovy is totally different sufficient that you simply may nonetheless have questions.
This text will clarify every part it is advisable to find out about the place and tips on how to inject Wegovy.
Get to know your Wegovy pen, prescription, and dose
Wegovy is a prescription medicine for weight reduction. It has the identical energetic ingredient—semaglutide—as different medication like Ozempic.
It is available in an injector pen (which can be referred to as a “medicine pen” or just a “pen”.)
Most individuals consider injector pens as being simpler to make use of than syringes. It’s because pens permit for easy and exact dosing of injectable medication.
Wegovy pens are about six inches lengthy. There’s a pen cap on one finish and a small plunger button on the opposite finish.
Pens are available 5 colours, equivalent to pre-measured doses.
If you happen to take off the pen cap and take a look at the ahead half of the pen, you will notice the pen tip and a transparent medicine chamber proper behind it.
Proper behind that on the physique of the pen, you’ll see the label with medicine and dose data
Wegovy pens shouldn’t have a visual needle. It’s because, not like many different injectable medicine pens, Wegovy pens have an auto-injector.
Wegovy pens are just like insulin or Ozempic pens, besides that Wegovy pens solely administer a single pre-loaded dose.
If you happen to’ve by no means used a pen, your physician’s workplace or pharmacist can describe to you tips on how to safely use a Wegovy pen.
The producer, Novo Nordisk, additionally maintains a webpage with particulars about safely utilizing the pen.
What does a dose appear to be?
The dose in milligrams that your physician prescribes to it is best to correspond to the dose listed on the label you could find on the physique of the Wegovy pen.
All Wegovy pens are designed to have only a single weekly dose in them—which means {that a} pen is designed for use as soon as after which discarded.
Though the pens could look roughly comparable, there are 5 totally different dose-sized Wegovy pens:
- A pen that comprises a 0.25 mg dose is for the start of therapy. These pens often have a teal label.
- A pen that comprises a 0.50 mg dose. These pens often have a pink label.
- A pen that comprises a 1 mg dose. These pens often have a brown or orange label.
- A pen that comprises a 1.7 mg dose. These pens often have a blue label.
- A pen that comprises a 2.4 mg dose. These pens often have a darkish grey label.
Make sure to confirm that the packaging and the pen are each clearly labeled with the dose possibility in milligrams that you simply had been prescribed.
Pen colours or labels could change over time, so it’s vital to confirm that the dose is appropriately listed.
By no means take greater than you might be prescribed by your physician. If you happen to overdose on Wegovy, it’s possible you’ll expertise important hostile unintended effects.
Learn Extra: Wegovy Dosing Information
The place is the perfect place on my physique to inject Wegovy?
To make sure that the medicine is efficient, it’s important to know the place to take it. Wegovy is designed to be administered proper below the pores and skin by injection.
Medicine injected below the pores and skin do finest once they’re injected into elements of your physique with some fatty tissue.
Injections into lean or largely muscular elements of your physique will not be really useful, as they are typically painful, could bleed greater than regular, and might trigger the drug to be much less efficient.
Wegovy ought to by no means be injected right into a vein or artery.
In keeping with the drug’s producer, the three finest locations in your physique to inject Wegovy are the entrance of your thighs, your stomach, and your higher arms—significantly the backs of your higher arms.
Learn extra: Easy methods to Keep away from Injection Web site Bruising
Easy methods to inject Wegovy
The quantity prescribed by your physician needs to be injected below the pores and skin into fatty tissue as soon as every week, on the identical day every week.
The time of day to your injection usually doesn’t matter.
The steps to comply with for injecting Wegovy are outlined under.
Examine your pen
Get your pen and an alcohol swab prepared.
Examine your dose to ensure you have the right pen.
Take away the cap from the entrance a part of your Wegovy pen and look via the pen’s plastic window to verify the liquid contained in the pen is evident.
Discover a great spot in your physique and put together the positioning for the shot
Selecting an space in your physique with extra fatty tissue, corresponding to your stomach, higher thighs, and higher arms is right.
Nonetheless, keep away from injecting into the identical spot every week to cut back bruising, scarring, or different pores and skin reactions.
Put together the positioning in your pores and skin by shortly rubbing it with an alcohol swab.
Injecting Wegovy
Press the entrance a part of the pen towards your pores and skin on the web site you’ve chosen in the best way your physician has proven you.
The pen needs to be perpendicular to your physique, at a few 90-degree angle.
Press the pen down firmly towards your physique. The auto-injector will start administering the drug as soon as the plastic base of the entrance of the pen is pressed firmly towards your pores and skin.
Pay attention for an audible click on to let you understand the injection has began.
If you happen to don’t hear the press, it’s possible you’ll must press the entrance a part of the pen down extra firmly towards the pores and skin.
Proceed holding the pen in place firmly towards your pores and skin for about ten seconds. A second click on will let you understand that the injection is ongoing.
You’ll discover a yellow plunger bar shifting contained in the pen widow and urgent the medication via the needle.
As soon as ten seconds have elapsed and the yellow bar stops shifting towards the entrance of the pen, you’ll be able to take away the pen out of your pores and skin.
Re-cap and discard the pen
Now that you simply’re performed, change the pen cap. As a result of it is a single-use pen, it may be safely discarded.
Seeing a tiny quantity of blood is regular, and you may apply stress to the world together with your alcohol swab if wanted.
How do I do know if I injected Wegovy appropriately?
As you inject your dose, hear for the 2 clicks and watch the clear window on the pen to verify the yellow plunger presses the medication into your physique.
Be sure that it stops shifting earlier than you’re taking the pen away out of your physique.
It’s a good suggestion to offer the auto-injector at the very least ten seconds of agency contact with the pores and skin to do its work.
Speak together with your physician or pharmacist if in case you have questions or fear that you might have performed one thing incorrectly.
What’s the finest time of day to inject Wegovy?
There isn’t any clinically demonstrated finest time of day to take Wegovy.
Moderately, crucial factor is to pick a day of the week and persistently take it on that very same day every week.
If you happen to determine to take the medicine on a Monday, you’ll be able to take it any time of day—however it is best to plan to take your weekly dose of Wegovy every Monday for so long as you utilize the medicine.
Write the day of the week you’re taking Wegovy on a calendar or on the field that your pen is available in.
Telephone reminders are additionally useful to ensure you don’t miss a dose.
What do I do if I miss a dose?
If you happen to miss a dose of Wegovy, take it as quickly as potential inside 5 days of your missed dose.
Nonetheless, if the dose you missed ought to have been taken 5 days or extra in the past, then it is advisable to skip that dose.
On this circumstance, you’ll take it in your subsequent recurrently scheduled day.
In different phrases, for those who’ve simply missed one dose and your subsequent scheduled dose is lower than 2 days away (48 hours), don’t take that missed dose.
Simply wait till your common day to take the common injection.
Why does my Wegovy pen not have a needle?
Once you open a brand new Wegovy pen, you’ll discover that there is no such thing as a seen needle, not like insulin pens.
It’s because Wegovy pens use an auto-injector. Auto-injectors have a tiny needle built-in into the physique of the pen.
Due to this, people who find themselves prescribed Wegovy don’t must see or deal with a needle when taking the medicine.
